International
Declaration on the
Future of the Arctic

The Arctic is changing before our eyes. Melting ice and rising temperatures are directly affecting the four million people who live in the region while touching the lives of billions more.

These changes are due in large part to our unchecked use of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution. Scientific models and growing empirical evidence tell us that we must develop clean alternatives urgently, if we wish to protect our children’s legacy.

For the four million people living in the Arctic, warming temperatures are endangering traditional livelihoods, customs, and sources of food. Wildlife is suffering hugely as ecosystems bear the brunt of an increasingly unstable climate.

And these changes affect us all. As the Arctic melts, millions face devastating weather events linked to warmer ocean currents. Coastal cities are already counting the cost of rising sea levels, while island states could disappear entirely. Some of the poorest people on Earth are set to suffer first and most acutely.

Despite these consequences, melting sea ice is seen by many as a chance to tap into new reserves of oil and gas. The expansion of this industry poses an unprecedented threat to the Arctic environment whilst risking further warming once the resulting fuels are refined and burnt.

The changing Arctic will create new shipping routes and it is our responsibility to ensure that these are managed in a way that protects both people and biodiversity.

Warmer oceans are affecting fish stocks and changing marine ecosystems, and we must act to protect both.

Our approach to the Arctic will help define how posterity judges this era in human history. We believe that protecting this region whilst ensuring its continued prosperity is a global imperative which demands an extraordinary political response.

Recognising our mutual dependence, and in solidarity with the peoples of the Arctic, we therefore support the following action:

1. Acknowledging and respecting the rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic, we call on Arctic states to implement rapidly and in full the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

2. Accepting that international law and the sovereignty of Arctic states are essential foundations for stable governance, we recognise the central role in this governance of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, including both the rights and duties of parties to the Convention.

3. Believing that the international community and young people everywhere have a legitimate interest in the future of the Arctic, we call on Arctic states to create new opportunities for international and inter-generational co-operation in shaping a sustainable future for the region.

4. Noting with alarm the devastating impacts of climate change on the Arctic region and the wider world, we demand an urgent renewal of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

5. Believing the Arctic ecosystem to be unique and precious, we call on states to meet their obligations under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by creating a network of marine protected areas and marine reserves in the Arctic Ocean.

6. Invoking the spirit of peace and co-operation that enabled the creation of the Antarctic Treaty, we propose that Arctic states work with the international community to declare the area of international waters around the North Pole a global sanctuary.

7. Understanding that Arctic fisheries will come under increasing pressure as ocean temperatures rise we call on Arctic states, in collaboration with the international community, to introduce a fisheries management regime that will protect this vital resource; including a moratorium on industrial-scale fishing in the previously un-fished waters of the Arctic.

8. Understanding that the Arctic environment is uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of an oil spill; that Arctic conditions make such a spill more likely whilst severely limiting the potential to clean it up; and that the exploitation of Arctic oil resources will significantly increase the risks of dangerous climate change, we call on Arctic states to develop and apply common, precautionary standards to the extraction of oil in the region; including a ban on extraction from marine environments, where it is not possible to respond adequately to a spill.

9. Recognising that the crisis of climate change requires us to address all sources of climate pollution, and acknowledging the specific impacts of black carbon in the Arctic, we urge the Arctic states and other countries that are able to act, to commit to strict controls on all sources of black carbon and to provide assistance to those developing countries that require support to address this problem.

10. Recognising that opportunities are increasing for shipping in the Arctic region and that with these opportunities come increased risks to the environment, we urge the international community to agree on the environmental chapter of the Polar Code under the auspices of the International Maritime Organisation as a matter of urgency.

The Arctic declaration has been developed as a mechanism for global leaders and civil society organisations to express concern for Arctic protection. Sign-ups to the declaration are being facilitated by Greenpeace International.